Channapatna stacking form
the object
Five parts, turned separately and fitted by eye rather than by measurement, each sized to sit inside the one below it. Assembled it stands about the height of a hand span; taken apart it is five bowls and a knob.
The bands are not painted on. Each colour is a stick of lac held against the wood while the lathe runs, so the edges between bands are slightly soft and never perfectly level. You can see the width of the band change by a millimetre as it goes round.
Handled daily, the polish deepens rather than wears. If a part is dropped hard it will dent, not shatter; the wood is soft on purpose.
- Dimensions
- Assembled 214 mm high, 96 mm across the base. Five parts.
- Material
- Ivory-wood (hale mara), lac
- Finish
- Lac polish, taken on the lathe. Nothing is applied over it afterwards.
- Variation
- Colour depth depends on how long the lac stick is held against the turning wood, so no two stacks match band for band.
- Lead time
- Three weeks from order.
the tradition
Channapatna lacquerware
Channapatna
Pigment and polish arrive in the same motion.
Channapatna sits on the road between Bengaluru and Mysuru, and has turned wood for long enough that the town is known for it before anything else. The wood is hale mara, ivory-wood, chosen because it is soft enough to turn quickly and close-grained enough to take a polish straight off the tool.
Colour arrives as a stick of lac pressed against the piece while it spins. Friction melts the lac onto the wood and the same motion burnishes it, so the pigment and the polish are one step, not two. The dyes are vegetable, which is why these have been given to children for generations, a matter of tradition rather than of regulation.
the maker
Lalitha
Turner, 18 years, Channapatna.
The deliberately narrow waist on the third form, which she turns thinner than her workshop's standard.
This object is not yet for sale.
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